


The Moon Has A Cruel Smile

by Gospelofthewicked



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Cassandra Stays With Gothel AU, Cassandra's desperate need for recognition, Child Abuse, Gen, the moonstone is just bad vibes man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:19:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29846946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gospelofthewicked/pseuds/Gospelofthewicked
Summary: It had been eighteen years since Cassandra began training to kidnap the princess. Sixteen since she'd taken the moonstone. Tonight was the night that it all finally paid off.
Relationships: Cassandra & Gothel (Disney: Tangled)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 12





	The Moon Has A Cruel Smile

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for canon-typical child abuse, Gothel is a bitch

Ever since she’d been old enough to understand words, Cassandra had known a fundamental truth about herself. It had never been spoken aloud, but it had been ever-present, woven into the tapestry of her lonely childhood. It settled like dust on her mother’s shawl after she snatched it away from Cassandra’s wanting grasp, danced in their cottage’s many mirrors as she tried so hard to brush away the curls that sent her mother into jealous fits, hid in her heart as she lay awake aching at night. Knowing without knowing, in the way that children so often do, Cassandra understood that worth was earned through hard work. And that she could never work hard enough.

She could never finish sweeping the house before her mother came home, she could never be quiet enough when playing with her dolls, she could never make her mother return a smile that reached her eyes. Cassandra had accepted her lot in life, searching for scraps of affection in any small glance or touch that came her way. Sometimes, Cassandra felt like they were the only two people in the world. They might as well have been, no-one came to visit and she never had a reason to leave, her place was in the house. In her imagination, it could be a grand palace, or a mysterious dungeon, or the hull of a vast pirate ship! She thought it’d stay that way forever, the two of them in their familial microcosm, like figures in a snowglobe. But it only took one night for that illusion to shatter.

Her mother had burst through the front door late that night, waking Cassandra as she turned the house upside down gathering her valuables. She’d scooped her daughter and ran out of the house with her. That was the last time she saw the cottage or her dolls ever again.

For a few miserable months, they’d had to live out in the forest. Her mother taught her how to hunt, and Cassandra surprised herself with how quickly she stopped feeling guilty when snaring rabbits. When they’d found the tower, her mother, who had been even more snappish and secretive than usual, finally began to smile again. One night, as they sat together by the dilapidated fireplace, she’d finally gathered the courage to ask her mother what had happened.

Her mother had let out a deep sigh, and for a moment Cassandra was afraid, but then she’d told her everything. That in all those trips she’d been travelling to a magical flower that kept her young forever, how one night she’d come to find it gone. The evil king and queen had stolen it, and the queen had eaten it so that no-one else could have it. Then, the queen gave birth to a baby girl with beautiful golden hair. Cassandra’s mother had known that her hair must have been golden because of the magic of the flower, and that the girl’s hair would have the power to make her young again. The night everything had changed, she’d snuck into the palace to bring the girl home, but the guards chased her out before she even saw the baby. They’d trailed her all the way to the cottage, which was why they had to flee.

Cassandra was aghast about how her mother had been treated, announcing that she hated the people who had done this, and that she wasn’t going to play games about kings or queens anymore. Then, fear struck her hard and Cassandra clutched her mother’s arm, asking if she was going to die. When her mother nodded sadly, she began to bawl. She pleaded and begged, saying she’d do anything to keep her mama. Memories became hazy from then, but Cassandra supposed that was when the training had begun.

The skin of her palms had hardened, swords became an extension of her being, and she finally began to earn her mother’s approval. It was still scant, but it was there. When she managed a perfect strike she got an approving nod, and she’d occasionally get a smile when she beat her old speed record as she ran laps around the tower. As she grew older, Cassandra would reflect on her mother’s old story, and it didn’t take her long to realise the holes and falsehood. But by then she was drunk on the tug of war for her mother’s love. If she could give her the golden princess, she’d have that love forever.

The issue with training so hard for her mother’s approval, however, was that it was high risk and low reward. For every hum of acknowledgement, the trade-off was a constantly evolving stream of insults, a house full of bickering as Cassandra became old and angry enough to sometimes bite back. Her emotions danced to the discordant tune of her mother’s equally wild moods, and her performance peaked and dipped alongside it.

One day, after a particularly bad argument, Cassandra had failed to hit any of her targets during archery practice. Her mother had screamed at her and she’d finally screamed back, “I’m only human, what do you want from me?”. Her mother had turned around and gone back inside. Cassandra had braced for several weeks of the silent treatment, but when she entered the tower, she found her mother packing. 

“You’re right. You’re only human. We’re going somewhere that will help you become more than that.” her mother had said. The candles cast an eerie light on her smirking face.

Oddly, Cassandra couldn’t remember anything about the trip. Sometimes, things would come back to her in dreams, a giant tree that scraped the sky, or a glossy dark hallway filled with glaring statues. Sometimes, she’d wake from her dreams sweating and shaking, clutching her chest to fend off a pain that was no longer there. 

Mother told her that they had gone to find the moonstone, the sundrop’s magical counterpart. She’d apparently been so distressed on the way back that mother had brewed a potion to take her memory of the whole month. From that day on, Cassandra took a drop each morning to erase the memories of each night’s dreams. 

Now, the moonstone sat embedded in her chest, her hair glowed turquoise, and the hazel of her eyes was overtaken by fiery blue. She was so much stronger now, so much fiercer, so much more powerful. 

It didn’t take long for her to master the black rocks. They spiked with her rage, rose with her ambition, and glimmered softly in the moonlight as she sat up awake at night watching them through the window. At fifteen, just when she thought she had mastered them as much as she could, her mother sat her down and taught her the Black-Rock Incantation. Five simple lines, which played over and over in Cassandra’s head that warm spring night as she journeyed towards the palace. Tonight, she would earn her worth.

(Crescent high above.)

The moon smiled down upon her as she scaled the palace walls. At one point, Cassandra made the mistake of looking down. Even if her rocks would save her, she couldn’t afford to fall, the noise would alert every guard in the castle.

(Evolving as you go,)

It didn’t take long for her to find the princess’ bedroom. Fate was on her side that night, as the latch had not been closed on the glass doors to the balcony. Cassandra slipped inside with ease.

(Raise what lies beneath.)

The rumours were true. The sleeping princess’ vibrant hair filled her massive bed, spooling over the sides. Cassandra couldn’t resist the urge to poke it. That moment of distraction was all it took for the princess’ eyes to flutter open.

(And let the darkness grow.)

She opened her mouth to scream for the guards, but Cassandra was quicker, pulling a cloth from her pouch and holding it over the other woman’s face. She thrashed for a moment, before her eyelids dropped and she went still.

(Let the darkness grow.)

**Author's Note:**

> This was grafted from the beginning of a much larger fic about this AU that I might get around to finishing some day. I always thought it'd be interesting to know how Cassandra and Rapunzel would have grown up so differently.


End file.
